Bowen Yang’s Last Shift on Saturday Night Live Is a Tear Jerker
Bowen Yang said goodbye to Saturday Night Life in style last night with a tearful musical moment. Earlier this week, Saturday Night Live fans were shocked to hear that the fan favorite comedian would be leaving the show before this season’s finale.
This all follows multiple high profile cast members calling it quits ahead of this current season. Yang is just the latest departure to signal a changing landscape for SNL as it looks to the 51st season of the program. Luckily for fans, the comedian pulled out a truly memorable departure.
Wicked: For Good star Ariana Grande was the host of this week’s episode. Cher played the role of musical guest. And both came through during a heartfelt goodbye to Yang. He played his Delta Lounge character one last time and you could tell emotion was running high for everyone on-set. Yang got a fun little joke on Keenan Thompson before the musical nature of this sketch began to take hold. Ariana Grande rolling up looking like every Midwestern Auntie you’ve ever seen and holding back some emotion. Then, Cher joking about being the president of the Delta SkyMiles Eggnog division? Priceless.
Despite this silly set trappings, Yang found a way to talk about how this cultural institution managed to give him a push in the right direction as far as his career was concerned. Even though these sketches are definitely scripted, it felt like there was some real life bleeding in there. And, fans picked up on some of that online as they celebrated Yang’s numerous characters over the years on SNL. Maybe it’s just the holiday season, or maybe the ridiculous year we’ve all had but there was a palpable sense of emotion behind all the parts of this sketch.
Bowen Yang says goodbye to SNL
After the shocking news made the rounds, Yang talked to fans directly on Instagram. It’s clear that the comedian cares about this run. He’s shared all the experience from SNL.
“I loved working at SNL, and most of all I loved the people. I was there at a time when many things in the world started to seem futile, but working at 30 rock taught me the value in showing up anyway when people make it worthwhile,” Yang began. “I’m grateful for every minute of my time there. I learned about myself (bad with wigs), I learned about others (generous, vulnerable, hot), i learned that human error can be nothing but correct. I learned that comedy is mostly logistics and that it will usually fail until it doesn’t, which is the besssst.”
“Thank you to every single person who showed up there: friends and coworkers and audiences and hosts. thank you celeste, sudi, will, alison, julio, fran, drez, bulla, marty, john, ben, jimmy, ceara, deetch, jake, asha, jack, auguste, tucker, kent, streeter, james, alex, jasmine, gary, and billy for writing with me,” he added. “Thank you to every cast member for making me laugh and cry. to liz and don. tom, jodi, louie, eamon. gena, chris, eddie. the crews, the pages. and to audrey, jameson, cassandra and chris for the fastest, funnest quick-changes in all of showbiz. Thank you to ari for sending me off in the dreamiest way I could imagine.”
Matt Rogers celebrates Bowen Yang
Yang added, “thank you to lorne for the job. for the standard. and for bringing everyone at work together. they all care deeply about people in the room, any room, enjoying themselves. i can’t believe i was ever included in that.”Las Culturistas co-host Matt Rogers had to take a second to celebrate his friend.
Rogers said, “My best friend who will exit Saturday Night Live tonight alongside Ariana Grande and, low key, CHER after seven and a half seasons, five Emmy nominations and countless memorable sketches and characters,” Rogers wrote on IG. “And he’s got one truly fucked-up incredible future ahead. I love you from the bottom of my heart and have been your number one fan since the moment I saw you, @fayedunaway and I will always be!!!! Sobben.”
(Photo Credit: NBC)
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